


Colors

by Befudle



Series: Drabbles that vaugely have something in common and might be chronological? [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Fluff, I WROTE THIS ON THE 4TH OF JULY OKAY IM SORRY, Javik/shep is implied, LATE AF, javik is a mantis shrimp, minor PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 18:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5101688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Befudle/pseuds/Befudle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The chair he sat in was a rickety structure made of woven plastic sheets that were the color of toothpaste, (a primitive cosmetic he'd discovered after a drunken Shepard had approached him on "Basic hygiene, Javik!!") and was supported by uneven metal tubes. The back was high enough that it forced Javik into an uncomfortable slump (due to the cone of his head) and only added to his irritation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colors

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i totally have that other fic i should be working on, but its been super crazy for a while here, between the moving and the UK trip and job hunting and no wifi and lots of other excuses plz forgive me.
> 
> i wrote this while sitting in the car on the 4th of july

 

He picked at another fraying string by his wrist. He hadn't wanted to come. And now that he had come, he wanted to leave.

The chair he sat in was a rickety structure made of woven plastic sheets that were the color of toothpaste, (a primitive cosmetic he'd discovered after a drunken Shepard had approached him on "Basic hygiene, Javik!!") and was supported by uneven metal tubes. The back was high enough that it forced Javik into an uncomfortable slump (due to the cone of his head) and only added to his irritation.

"Do you want anything to drink? It just occurred to me- I can't really imagine you drinking Pop. So..."

Javik turned to his host as she emerged from the sliding glass door, still scrubbing water from her hair. It was now much closer to her head, after it had been singed off in the aftermath of the Crucible.

"I don't need anything."

" _Pah_. That sounds a lot like 'lets get this over with.' You should relax."

Javik scoffed, even as the woman shoved a pepsi into his cupholder. "I don't see the point of this. There is far too much work still to be celebrating now. People are still _dying_ , Commander."

The woman heaved a sigh and plopped down into the folding chair next to his own. He unsubtly hopped his own chair over another inch.

"It's been a year- an Earth one at least-, Javik, I've seen you talk a... a spark into a group of heartbroken refugees, surely you see the point of this." She took a sip of her own can (which Javik noted was not pepsi.) and shot him a serious look. "So its something else."

Javik made no reply, and looked forlornly at the commanders can. He lost a little bit of respect for her every morning he found her curled up on the floor next to a pool of vomit. Especially on mornings when there was an identical pool of vomit and a certain Krogan clan leader curled up next to her.

Then there was the Inflatable Dolphin Incident.

They sat quietly for several minutes, Earths sun slowly making it way lower in the sky.

Shepard gave a snort at a sarcastic comment made by Bakara as a fore-mentioned krogan attempted to toss his younger protégée into the pool.

After another beat of silence, she struck his shoulder.

"The settling-down, then."

Javik popped the tab on his pepsi to keep from answering. Looking at the black liquid, he nestled it back into its cupholder with a grimace.

"The war has been your whole life and you don't know what to do now that it's over."

"You make it sound simple."

She gave a shrug and took another gulp of her can.

"It's not. I know it isn't. But thats the big shit on the crap pile, isn't it?"

Javik grimaced at her analogy and remained silent.

"Should be easy, right? War is the hard part. Should be easier to step out." She scoffed. "If 'easier said than done' were tangible..."

She scooted her lawn chair close enough to rest her hand on Javik's forarm. Which endured Javik's sidelong look.

"Look, just get drunk enough to forget it sometimes." She punctuated her statement with another gulp from her can. "Chakwas would back me up on this."

Javik used the commotion behind them (Wrex finally managed to toss the younger Krogan in, and the resulting wave doused the two cuddling Dextros'.) as an excuse to avoid her eyes. "I do not find that amusing, commander."

Shepard shrugged. She threw back the last bit of liquid left in her can and tossed it into the half-open trash bag a couple yards from them.

"You don't have to think I'm funny, you just have to realize: tomorrow, the same number of people will have died regardless of whether you spent tonight worrying, or you got blasted and passed out in a lawn chair outside with my sorry ass draped over you."

That earned her a thoughtful look. She didn't meet his gaze as she started on (apparently) her third can from the six-pack resting in her lap.

"I don't understand."

"I mean," sip. "if you weren't being forced to live with me and thus not being forced to attend this party; what would you do right now? How would you fix everything?"

After the entire crew was forced to take a lengthy "vacation", no one had any idea what to do with the prothean. It was a billion-trillion forms that Javik did not have the information for. He had no taxes, no embassy, no social, and no residency. It was chaos.

After a point, Shepard had stepped in and point-blank told them to "Figure it out." And then ushered him into the spare room on her Earth home by the river and forced him to attend her parties. Not to worst substitute for rent, but pretty damn close.

"This is pointless."

Javik made an uncharacteristic noise as Shepard stopped him from rising with a firm grip on his wrist.

"No, it's not, Javik." His breath caught at the look in her eyes. "Because the answer is: you would go out there and tear yourself to pieces without making much of a difference. This isn't one mission with one objective anymore. This is a 50 billion problems with 40 billion people trying to fix them. And I'm not good at math- see Garrus- but _one_ Javik divided by _50 billion_ problems..." Shepard released his wrist as he slowly returned to his chair. "...well, i just don't have a one-liner witty enough to describe how _useless_ that is."

The two quickly descended into an awkward silence. After about a full minute, his eyes landed further down down Shepard's yard, where Vega, Ashley, and Cortez seemed to be assembling something in the grass. Shepard followed his eyes and gave him a soft nudge and gestured to where the trio were suddenly scattering. "Watch."

He did. And before he realized he'd even stood, he had his pistol out and was looking for something to aim at. Shepard was already on his arm, her chair tipped over and ignored from how quickly shed risen. He turned from the look of almost pity to the sky, where colors where exploding and swirling in an extvagant display.

With a tight expression, he sat himself back down. Shepard remained at his side, but let out a soft laugh when he stole the remains of the six-pack dangling from her fingers.

They stayed that way for a while longer, just watching the display and enjoying cheap beer. After Vega launched one off the bicycle helmet he wore (who knows where he found it), Shepard sat down in the grass beside Javik's chair, resting her chin on his arm rest.

"I always loved the 4th of July." Javik ignored that. "I always loved the colors."

At that, Javik did laugh, earning an surprised look from Shepard. "What?"

He gave Shepard an amused glance. " _Colors_."

Javik missed the way Shepard's eyes lit up as he popped the tab on his second beer. When he looked back, she was silently urging him to continue.

"I did some reading about your kind while aboard the Normandy." When he took a sip of his beer and didn't continue, Shepard socked him in the knee.

He gave another short laugh as another round of fireworks erupted in the sky.

Shepard grunted and feigned offense as he pushed her off his armrest by the forhead, and then gave him an inquisitive look as he placed his arm there, palm-up.

She scoffed as he snapped his fingers in impatience, and dubiously laced her fingers with his.

Normally when he shared memories with her it was a sharp, abrupt experience. In and out. But this time she was blind for a long minute. It felt like he was nudging her mind, enticing it to behave a certain way- it was difficult to describe. It was like he was trying to prepare her thoughts.

Eventually he seemed satisfied and ordered her to open her eyes.  
When she did, she immediately dropped his hand.

She looked back over her yard where Ashley was now talking James and Grunt out of launching a finisher pack off of Grunt's hump, while Cortez was lighting another on the sawhorse table.

She glanced back at Javik's smug face and immediately locked fingers with him again.

She sat through Javik modeling her thoughts again and was allowed to see just as Cortez's pinwheel went off.

What she saw was just that. Her yard with three humans ducking for cover and one krogan laughing maniacally as a finisher pack erupted behind his head.

Which was all remarkable in its own right, but what had her so enraptured were the colors.

She was seeing colors she was sure didn't exist. She'd certainly never seen them in her box of crayons. It was like chaos, but none of it seemed out of place.

She stayed mystified with the display for what felt like... A long time.

Her beer sat tipped over and ignored by her foot, and she remained consumed with how it felt to see as a prothean.

Slowly (and very startlingly) her own slack-jawed face came in to view. She fixed her expression self-consciously as the realization occurred to her that she was literally seeing through the eyes of the Prothean.

Honestly? It was a little unsettling seeing herself in the third person, but intriguing all the same, yet still she was relieved when Javik heaved a sigh and returned his attention to the fireworks.

They continued to watch in silence, the group from the pool and those unseen in the house eventually emerging (Garrus and Tali sharing a towel) and joining the two in the yard to enjoy the display.

And by that, only half of them were paying attention to the fireworks.


End file.
